Earlier this year, Subaru announced its plans to focus on electric and electrified products for the US market. Multiple new electric vehicles will be launched by the middle of the decade and hopefully, they will be more than just rebadged Toyota models. For its first production zero-emission vehicle, however, Subaru slapped its own logo on the Toyota bZ4X and renamed it Solterra. It’s a decent EV but how good is it around the cones?
In its latest video, km77.com put the Solterra through the moose test to find out how maneuverable and stable the electric SUV is. Generally speaking, the moose test evaluates how well a certain vehicle evades a suddenly appearing obstacle, and the higher the speed it records without hitting any cones, the better the overall result is. Let’s see how the Solterra handles that test.
The vehicle you’ll see in the video attached at the top of this page is from the 2023 model year of the Solterra for the Spanish market. It rides on 235/60 R18 Yokohama Advan V61 tires and relies on a dual-motor powertrain with one motor for the front axle and another one for the rear axle. The combined system output stands at 218 horsepower, while the energy is stored in a 71.4-kilowatt-hour battery pack for a WLTP-certified range of up to 289 miles (465 kilometers) at a single charge.
The journalists at km77.com – as the name of their media implies – set a target of 47.85 miles per hour (77 kilometers per hour) for a successful run around the cones. The Solterra doesn’t reach this target but hits a peak entrance speed of 45.36 mph (73 kph). While a little short of the target, this result is considered good in the moose test. More important than the speed, our colleagues say, is the fact that the Solterra remains very predictable and controllable during the run. Also, the electronic stability control system makes subtle but very accurate interventions.
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